Tag Archive: alex gwyther

Last night I went to the cinema to see Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing, a black and white movie with a tiny budget which Whedon shot in 12 days at his house with a bunch of his actor friends. If you like Shakespeare comedies, if you like spotting old cast members from Buffy and Firefly, or if you simply want to experience some serious envy at Joss Whedon’s house, this is a movie I would heartily recommend to you.

I do have a point though, poetry fans (As fascinated as I’m sure you are by my thoughts on the week’s movie releases. Next week: Man of Steel– not as good as Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman – DISCUSS). No, my poetry-related point comes from one of the lines from Much Ado that stuck with me as I was walking home yesterday evening in the sunshine. Benedick, attempting to write a sonnet for Beatrice, tries out a bunch of dreadful rhymes and then gives it up, complaining “I was not born under a rhyming planet”.

I’m dreadful at rhyming. My poetry got a whole bunch better when, at the age of ten, I thought I had invented the concept of blank verse. Turns out I hadn’t, of course, but I’ve never been very good at getting my poems to scan and rhyme as I wanted them to. That’s not to say that I don’t love rhyming, though, and it’s with very great pleasure that I’m able to tell you that NLP are shortly to publish a new pamphlet by the fantastic Mr Nic Aubury. If you’ve not come across Nic’s previous pamphlet Small Talk, you really should. Quite apart from the fact that it sold out of four print runs and was named by Sophie Hannah in the Sunday Express as one of her books of the year, it’s just really, really great.

Cold Soup, published by NLP in July, promises more of the same from our favourite part-time pedant and armchair philosopher. In this pamphlet you will witness Adam and Eve contemplating the walk of shame, you will hear about the ire of the 5’8” man, but you will also read something of the simply beauty in every day family life, all delivered to you in verses that rhyme and scan in a way that will make you want to read them out loud to your nearest and dearest.

In other NLP-related news, I’m really excited to tell you about an upcoming show written, performed and co-produced by NLP poet and playwright Alex Gwyther. Our Friends, The Enemy is Alex’s debut solo show combining theatre and spoken word to capture the events surrounding the Christmas truce from the First World War. Using a mixture of diary entries and third person narrative, Alex takes on the persona of James Boyce, a young soldier from Surrey who experiences the truce first-hand and takes the audience on a magical, haunting journey through the events surrounding the first Christmas of World War One.

Alex with be performing Our Friends, The Enemy in Edinburgh from August 2nd – 24th at theSpace UK @ Surgeon’s Hall, before taking it on tour in December. Find out more here.

Cold Soup by Nic Aubury is available for pre-order here, and Alex’s Nasty Little Intro #4 can be found here on the NLP website.

Good day to you, and humblest apologies for the radio silence from this blog. No excuses, just apologies. I will do better.

There are new and exciting things afoot at NLP, new and exciting things that I have not yet received clearance to tell you about. Rest assured that you guys will be the first to know when I do!

In the meantime, members of our facebook group may have seen this already, but it’s such a great review, you shouldn’t have to be a member of our champagne-swilling, super-exclusive, über mysterious facebook group to take part*. Poejazzi is a London-based spoken word and music night, and a couple of weeks ago, they reviewed Alex Gwyther’s Nasty Little Intro #4 on their blog. And what a lovely review it is! (Plus, they call us a cool publishing universe. Oh Poejazzi. Flattery will get you everywhere.)

Until next time, poetry fans, I hope you’re all sprinting outside whenever the sun comes out to see as much of the summer as possible!

Well hello there, poetry fans, and a very happy (and rainy if you live…pretty much anywhere in the UK) Saturday to you!

This is just a quick ‘un to remind you that our two latest pamphlets, Nasty Little Intro #3 by Amy Blakemore and Nasty Little Intro #4 by Alex Gwyther are flying off the shelves. Awesome poetry from two of the UK poetry scene’s Next Big Things, and all for the bargain price of £2. Stocks are limited, so don’t miss out!

I also have a few gigs for you to pencil into your diary, from above mentioned NLP poet Alex Gwyther. He’s out and about around the UK this spring and summer, most notably at Streetfest on 6th May, Poejazzi on 10th June, The Secret Garden Party from 19th-22nd July, and Camp Bestival from 26th-29th July.

Not being a farmer or someone who monitors water levels in regional reservoirs, I can’t say I’m all that excited about this ‘drought’ we are having. In fact, it would almost appear that we are being cheated out of an entire season. At NLP, I know we have some friends in high places, but am unsure whether any of them actually have the power to do anything about the weather. I’m just putting it out there. It’s my birthday next week and I’d like to wear my flip flops. OK? Thanks.

My dear poetry fans, it is with the deepest pride and the greatest pleasure that we…no, wait, I’m writing this with Lumière from Beauty and the Beast in my head, we’re not going to let the dining room present your dinner, we’re going to…unveil the latest NLP publications! Way more exciting than watching the flatware entertaining!

Here at NLP, we are very excited to introduce you to Amy Blakemore and Alex Gwyther, whose Nasty Little Intros are now on sale. Do go check out their pages in our People section to find out a bit more about them, and then head here to buy your copy for the bargain price of £2. You will not be disappointed!

I also wanted to draw your attention to a couple of our NLP poets who are currently or about to be on tour: Hannah Walker, whose Oh Fuck Moment show will be touring the country during April and May, Molly Naylor, who will be previewing her Edinburgh show My Robot Heart over the next few months, and John Osborne, whose show John Peel’s Shed will be touring Ireland and Scotland in May.

We’ll try to keep you up to date with our poets and their comings and goings, but do keep an eye on their websites and facebook pages!